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Definition: Ending August 11, 1919 was a civil conflict after WW1 where the old empire was replaced with the Weimar republic that began with a military mutiny. Early in the conflict Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his throne leaving a power struggle between different political factions to take place.
Rationale: A picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II who resigned. -
Definition: Agreement between Chancellor Friedrich Ebert (social democrat) and quartermaster general of the army Wilhelm Groener. Groener assured that the army would support the new government and Ebert assured the army's autonomy and allowed them to become "a state within a state".
Rationale: This is a picture of Ebert (right) and Groener (left). -
Definition: Signed between Germany and the Allies (the last of the Central powers to sign an armistice) on the basis of US President Wilson's 14 points.
Rationale: A picture of a newspaper headline after the armistice is signed. -
Definition: Until January 12; General strike in Berlin by the Communist Party of Germany specifically the Marxist Spartacus League. The Revolt was put down by the Freikorps in coordination with the government.
Rationale: A picture of the revolt. -
Definition: Official overthrown on May 6, 1919 by the freikorps and other elements of the German army. AKA the Munich Soviet Republic was a short-lived unrecognized social state in Germany that was a workers council republic.
Rationale: Shows where in Germany the republic was in red the only color on the republic's flag. -
Definition: The Treaty between Germany and the allies that ended WW1. Often called the diktat in Germany as the treaty was given instead of negotiated. The reparations payments, war guilt clause, and loss of territory despite self-determination were the 3 terms Germany most hated despite the treaty being fairly mild.
Rationale: A picture of the front of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Definition: The Weimar Republic was the first parliamentary democracy in Germany. The constitution established regular elections for president and proportional representation Reichstag. It also gave the President emergency powers in article 48 but emergency is never defined.
Rationale: This is an image or the Weimar Constitution. -
Definition: Attempted coup against the government by the paramilitary unit the freikorps after the government had told various units that they needed to disband despite the Ebert-Groener pact. The Kapp Putsch wanted to replace the republic with an autocratic government but was stopped with passive resistance on March 18th.
Rationale: This is a symbol of the freikorps. -
Definition: AKA the March Uprising was a workers revolt in the Ruhr initiated in support of the call for a general strike to end the Kapp Putsch, but continued long after the Kapp Putsch and was eventually put down by the reichswehr and some freikorps on April 12, 1920.
Rationale: Map of tactical movement during the uprising. -
Definition: Treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union renouncing any economic or territorial claims from the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and set the foundation for good relations between the two nations.
Rationale: This is a picture of the Germans and Russians meeting for the treaty of Rapallo. -
Definition: Lasting until August 25, 1925; France and Belgium believing that Germany was refusing reparations payments and decided to take German resourced in lieu of money. The use of force by France and Belgium pushed the international community to side with Germany and push for the occupation to end.
Rationale: Political cartoon about the occupation of the Ruhr. -
Definition: Caused by the continuation of the flawed money printing war economic policy of the Imperial German government into the Weimar republic. The 1923 Hyperinflation Crisis and money printing was sparked by the policy of passive resistance against the occupation of the Ruhr.
Rationale: A graphic giving a general view of hyperinflation. -
Definition: Also known as the Munich Putsch was a failed coup by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders in Munich, Bavaria. The leaders hoped to take advantage of the government's weakness and reinstate a rightist government.
Rationale: A picture of the Munich Putsch. -
Definition: Used to replace the inflated mark one billion marks to one rentenmark. Stabilized the German currency.
Rationale: The picture is of a rentenmark. -
Definition: A reparation payment plan for Germany after the altercation with the occupation of the Ruhr. The Dawes plan was an interim solution and needed to be replaced in 1929. The Dawes plan introduced US supervision of the German economy and lowered reparations payments to1 billion marks increasing each following year.
Rationale: Political cartoon of reparations payments collection (not specifically Dawes but still collection). -
Definition: The time period of the Weimar Republic that saw the greatest economic stability, cultural extravagance, political stability, and best living standards. Ended in 1929 with the Great Depression.
Rationale: The picture shows all of the coalitions during the Weimar golden age. -
Definition: Hindenburg was a right leaning former leader of the German army before defeat in WW1. Also a member of Prussian nobility he was for a strong government but opposed to the extremist NSDAP. he was elected twice the second time running to keep Hitler out of power. Hindenburg died in 1934 before the end of his second term.
Rationale: Picture of Paul von Hindenburg. -
Definition: The treaty was a way to help secure peace after WW1 and improve relations with Germany who felt cheated after the Treaty of Versailles. The success of the Locarno Treaty is debated.
Rationale: The Locarno Treaty meeting with heads of state -
Definition: Russia and Germany pledged neutrality in the event of an attack on one of the nations within the next 5 years. This also reaffirmed the treaty of Rapallo and kept German-Soviet relations cool.
Rationale: Picture of the people involved with the treaty of Berlin. -
Definition: Germany was admitted to the League after the Treaty of Locarno which brought Germany out of it's political isolation and into the international community after WW1.
Rationale: This is the symbol for the League of Nations. -
Definition: Including the SPD, Catholic Center Party, DDP, and DNVP was the longest lasting coalition in Weimar history during the end of the golden age. The grand coalition was inspired by the need to mitigate extremist parties in Germany but ended on March 27, 1930.
Rationale: The picture shows some of the leaders of the grand coalition. -
Definition: Finalized this date adopted January of 1930. Replacing the Dawes plan for German reparations payments reducing them by 20% (112 billion marks) and set the end date for the payments in 1988.
Rationale: Political cartoon of the Young plan. -
Definition: Often attributed to the US Stock Market crash an economic depression that started in the US and moved internationally. Germany became entangled in the Great Depression because of their reliance on US loans after WW1.
Rationale: Hitler took advantage of the Great Depression to grow his political support through economic policy like autarky. -
Definition: After being replaced by his former ally Von Schleicher as chancellor Von Papen sought to regain power through using Hitler. Von Papen convinced Hitler to become chancellor with Von Papen as Vice chancellor assuming that Hitler would be a puppet chancellor.
Rationale: Shows Von Papen (left) who made the deal and Von Schleicher (right) who betrayed Von Papen. -
Definition: After a string a poor chancellors President Hindenburg was growing more desperate for a good chancellor. Former Chancellor Von Papen convinced Hindenburg to let Hitler become Chancellor thinking that Hitler would be a puppet chancellor or a "chancellor in chains".
Rationale: Picture of Von Papen with Hitler.